Recipes

Hello & Welcome!

Hi, my name is Cindy. I live simply. I am an everyday person, I live in a small town, and I’ve figured out how to make do. Join me as I work through making do with what I have in the workshop, cooking from scratch, making homemade soaps, cleaners, and beauty products, and playing around with the camera.

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Latest Cooking Recipes

Making pear sauce is just as easy as making apple sauce! Just use pears! Pear sauce is also the first step towards making and canning pear butters, which I have found I really, really like. There’s a unique flavor in there that my taste buds just really love. While I like canned pears just fine,Continue Reading →

Remember when a bread machine was all the rage? Everyone bought one, made a few loaves of bread, then they got stashed in the cupboard or were given away or sold. I bought one, too. The recipes in the booklet had more ingredients than I had on hand and never seemed to buy. Then, theyContinue Reading →

Latest Soap Recipes

What’s the difference between homemade liquid soap and homemade bar soap besides the consistency? The type of lye that’s used in each one. By combining fatty acids and Sodium Hydroxide (NaOH), the sodium actually crystallizes to form a hard bar of soap. In liquid soap, the Potassium Hydroxide (KOH, caustic potash) is soluble, leaving itContinue Reading →

I have a recipe to share with you! I’ve been experimenting with different base recipes by superfatting. Superfatting (sometimes referred to as a lye discount) is either adding an extra amount of oil into your soap recipe but keeping the lye amount the same, or using the same amount of oil and less lye. ItContinue Reading →

Latest Beauty Recipes

Making homemade bath salts is the easiest DIY ever. I mean it. Making bath salts yourself is also one of the most frugal ways to save money, the cost in the store is just a little outrageous. And bath salts are one of the most needed items in your bath arsenal — a DIYer bodyContinue Reading →

Why would I want to make homemade deodorant? Because I can. A few months ago, I noticed (and was a little concerned) on the back of my deodorant “Ask a doctor before use if you have kidney disease” and started researching. Basically, deodorants/antiperspirants contain aluminum (Aluminum Zirconium Tetracholohydrx GLY) which can’t be relieved from yourContinue Reading →

Latest Home Recipes

It seems to be late in the season, but the mosquitoes are out full force here now. I’ve been waiting! I needed to try out my recipe of natural homemade mosquito repellent. It must be my sweet, sweet blood they love because I can be hit when no one else is, so I just knewContinue Reading →

I’ve made and sold bars and bars and bars of soap. I have ends left–sort of like bread heels–that adorn our sinks. There are all sorts of flavors of soaps at the sinks. One of the drawbacks–the kids have issues when using the bar soap. I have to break the bars up so the kidsContinue Reading →